Reiterating his party’s commitment to build India on the lines BR Ambedkar envisaged, BJP’s national president Amit Shah said on Thursday that the country could not progress sans the development of the villages. “The BJP is committed to provide basic facilities to the last man in the villages. Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday is not just a programme but the pulsating mantra for the party,” he said while addressing the Samrasta Sammelan near Sector 1 of BHEl to mark the birth anniversary of Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Shah stole the show as the focus of the annual Sadbhawna Sammelan convened by the spiritual master –turned—politician Satpal Maharaj was set on the national president of BJP. Earlier, the BJP leader garlanded the statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar at Kadachh Mohalla in Jwalapur along with Haridwar MP Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, Ranipur legislator Adesh Chauhan, city legislator Madan Kaushik, State President Ajay Bhatt and district party president Suresh Rathore.
Addressing the well-attended gathering, Shah said, “Two names are eminent in the history of British India who made the country one by their efforts—one is Sardar Patel and the other is Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Ambedkar is the revolutionary who dissolved the barriers of caste and brought the Indian Constitution.”
He took a dig at the Opposition, saying that they were just paying lip-service while the BJP government was engaged in translating the legend’s dreams on the ground. “This helped the villagers from the remotest of the villages to move ahead,” he said.
Giving details of the village-transforming projects the Narendra Modi Government has taken up, Shah said, “Rs9 lakh crore has been allocated for rural development this year, something which has no parallel. While Rs20,000 crore has been allocated to complete 89 irrigation projects Rs22,000 crore will be spent during the year on Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna against Rs8000-9000 crore spent during the UPA dispensation. By 2018, 15000 villages would have electricity supply and by 2020, they would be connected through Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna.” Referring to Mudra Yojna, he said that loans of Rs1 lakh crore have been given to Rs2.5 crore people for self-employment, adding that the target is help 5.5 crore people by the next year.
Shah said that the NDA Government believed in agricultural growth ushering in dignified lives of the rural poor. “The UPA Government's policies aggravated rural distress,” he said.
In the end, he did not forget to urge the people present to chant with him “Bharat Mata ki jai”.